All the Devils' hottest news, from notes to numbers to neutral-zone traps

Monday, October 4, 2010

I spoke to Devils captain Jamie Langenbrunner after practice today and he said he has not been approached about waiving his no-trade clause. I can't tell you about the other players with no-trade clauses, but it doesn't appear anything is happening, yet. And defenseman Rob Davison, who is likely headed to Albany, was the only Devil placed on waivers today.

The Devils have until 3 p.m. Wednesday to get under the cap, so something will have to happen soon. As I mentioned earlier, if the Devils intend to send a veteran to Albany (or loan him elsewhere) to clear his salary from their cap before Wedesday's deadline, he must be placed on waivers by noon Tuesday, so that he can clear waivers by noon on Wednesday.

Forward Adam Mair remains with the team on a tryout. He said he hasn't heard anything yet from the team about signing him to a contract and hasn't even spoken to his agent. You'd have to think he has some idea about what is going on, though.

It's clear he's willing to wait around for something to happen either way, though.

"I'll do whatever they'd like me to do," Mair said.

Today's practice was very general in nature and not a lot specific toward getting ready for Friday's regular season opener against Dallas at Prudential Center. Devils coach John MacLean said there will be plenty of time to get ready for Friday's game after the roster is set.

"We'll know. We'll be down (below the cap)," MacLean said. "We'll have enough days to get prepared for being ready on Friday night. All of the things that we're doing, we'll fine tune everything when we have the final roster."

MacLean said they are "closer" to making the decisions that have to be made. As the rookie head coach, does he have a lot of input?

"The rookie coach is aware of everything that is going to happen and the rookie coach will not be surprised by anything," he said. "It will be talked about and we'll address it. We'll move forward and, as I said, we'll be ready for Friday night."

Rookies Jacob Josefson, Mattias Tedenby, Alex Urbom, Matt Corrente and Matt Taormina all remain with the team as no moves have been made since Nick Palmieri was sent down Saturday to trim the roster to 28 players (including the injured Bryce Salvador and Anssi Salmela). Does that mean the Devils believe all of those young players are ready to play in the NHL right now if the situation calls for it?

"They got a good look," MacLean said. "That's what we had them here for, to give them a good look and give them that opportunity so we feel they're going to be ready when they get the opportunity."

***Devils center Travis Zajac said his younger brother, Darcy, has been assigned to Trenton of the ECHL.

***The Devils have never had a 50-goal scorer or a player reach 100 points in a season before. With Ilya Kovalchuk on board for a full season and Zach Parise as his linemate -- at least to start the season -- there's a chance this is the season that changes. MacLean was asked if it was possible if both players get to 50 and 100 this season.

"Wouldn't that be nice?" he asked. "We'll see how that plays out. The team has never really been concerned with stats. It's winning. So, that's what we're focusing on."

MacLean likes the way Parise and Kovalchuk have played together so far, though.

"They've been looking pretty good right now and, hopefully, they can keep moving forward, keep playing and putting (goals) up and make it hard for other teams to play against us and push the other lines," he said. "A little competition with the lines is good also."

Although it might look like the Devils plan to be more offensive-minded stylistically this season, MacLean said nothing has changed as far as the team's commitment to defense.

"It's who we have," he said. "We have some talent, so we have to let them play. But we're not going to get away from what the basic premise is of our play. We want to be good in our own end. We have to limit chances against and they'll make their chances for themselves in the offensive end. That's what we're looking for. It's not always going to be one way. They're going to have to play a complete game."

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.